Spies ascendancy continues at Sachsenring

Ben Spies’ ability to learn new tracks in extremely short amounts of time was once more displayed at Sachsenring on Friday afternoon, where the American rookie set the fourth quickest lap of the opening practice session at the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland.

The 26 year-old spent the majority of the hour-long session studying the tight and twisty layout of the Sachsenring circuit, before putting in a hot lap of 1’23.189 (+0.668s off leader Dani Pedrosa) inside the final 10 minutes to ride to fourth.

“I'm really happy to be so high up after the first session and I think I figured out this track pretty quickly. It is good to start the weekend in the top five and that gives us a platform to build on,” said Spies.

“This circuit is pretty tight and twisty and there are a lot of left-hand corners but I like it because there is quite a lot of elevation that makes it fun. It felt like being out on a dirt track bike and I see Nicky is right up there too. If the weather isn't as good tomorrow I'm really glad that I got going today and was able to get a feel for the track but also put in some fast lap times. I went out on the hard tyre, which I don't think I'm going to race on, just to learn the track and when I put the softer tyre on I was able to go quite a bit faster.”

Spies set his best time after switching to the softer rear tyre option he is likely to opt for in Sunday’s race. He continued: “There are a couple of places where I can improve like the left-handers before the fast right downhill section but it was a decent start. I'm pretty sure already that I'll race the soft tyre. I'm sure I can do the times on the hard tyre but we'll see what the conditions are like. It's a positive start and that's all I can ask for."